The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-05-02
THE INSIDE ROUTE.
Supervising Inspector Pannell Talks
Entertainingly Of Steamboats,.

Supervising Inspector Pannen Talks
Entertainingly Of Steamboats,.
Mr.. J. X PANEL, Supervising Inspector
of Steamboat Hulls for this district might be
called a steamboat specialist. Everything
appertaining to navigation by steam has an
attraction for him. He has seen a great
revolution in the appliance Of steam to boats,
and talks most entertainingly on the subject.
He has devoted good deal of study to the
possibilities of an inside route along the
Atlantic coast
Picking up pamphlet from table in his
room at the Pulaski House. Mr.. Pannell re-
marked yesterday to a MORNING NEWS re-
porter that probably very few people are
aware of the fact that Robert Fulton was
interested in the same thing. 1t was one of
the great inventors hobbies, however. In
1913, only five years after he launched his
North River, Fulton published pamphlet
of thirty or forty pages on the advantages
of establishing communication between New
York and the st. Mary's river bya system
OF steamboats, and horses.
1t was a second edition of that pamphlet,
published in 1928, which Mr.. Pannell took
up from the table. He proceeded
to read bits here and there in it.
to show how familiar Fulton was with the
coast and the inside passages. 81 have been
up and down this coast all of my life," the
inspector remarked land it is remarkable
to me to see how much Fulton knew about
it, l confess he was better acquainted with
it than | am, and have been up and down
the coast good many times" Fulton cal
culated that between Norfolk and Charles
ton 1t would be necessary to dredge only a
little over seven miles of what he termed
portages. The cost he thought would not
exceed $1,000 a mile, or $4,000 for the
whole job. The expenditure of that money,
he said, would allow steamboats, to make
the the trip from Charleston to Norfolk
without going outside at all.
THAT would be considered ridiculously
low now for the construction of one mile of
canal" Mr.. Pannell remarked, adding that
he had built a canal only fourteen miles in
length which cost something like million
and a quarter. 1t, however, was a steam
canal, the Chesapeake and Albemarle.
Mr.. Pannell is citizen of Norfolk, and
witnessed the naval combat between the
Merrimac and Monitor. He had small
steamboat, he says, and ran out where he
could get a good view of the fight,
which was followed by a complete change
in the navieS of the world. After the en-
counter, in which neither gunboat was de-
feated, the Monitor ran around under a
shoal where the Merrimac could not reach
her, being too 'long legged" Mr.. Pannell
remarked that he could never understand
until recently why the Monitor would not
go out and try another round with the
Confederate ironclad The Monitors officers
were blamed for remaining inactive, but it
seems that her commander was acting under
orders from Washington. The Federals
had but the one ironclad and they knew that
if she should be unlucilily disabled Or cap
tured, the Merrimac would steam around to
Washington and play the mischief gener
ally. 1t was shrewdly concluded therefore
that the best thing was to keep the Monitor
where she was safe from the Merrimac and
yet in a position where she could not be left
without watching. 1t was only a short
time ago Mr.. Pannell states that he first
saw the official order